Michigan State takes on Loyola with long homecourt streak intact

The Ramblers have won four games in a row. They haven’t won five straight since taking the first seven games of the 2010-11 season.

Loyola, a Horizon League rival of Detroit Mercy, faces a Top 25 team for the first time this season when the Ramblers play Michigan State at 2 p.m. (BTN).

Loyola is 6-2 overall, its second-best start in six seasons. The Ramblers did not post their seventh victory last season until Feb. 11.

But against MSU, Loyola runs up against an opponent it hasn’t played since December 2002, and hasn’t beaten since 1939. MSU has won three straight against the Ramblers, and has not lost at home to Loyola.

Michigan State (7-2) has won its last two games, over Nicholls State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, by an average of 38.5 points and is ranked No. 19 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Spartans have won 69 consecutive home games against unranked non-conference teams.

Michigan State leads the Big Ten in limiting opponents’ scoring with 55.9 points per game.

Typical of a Tom Izzo-coached team, the Spartans out-rebound opponents by 10.6 per game.

Keith Appling, a junior guard, leads MSU in scoring at 15.3 ppg. He also is the Spartans’ top assist maker with 38.

Ben Averkamp leads Loyola with 16.5 ppg.

Loyola’s Devon Turk is coming off a 19-point performance against Furman. Turk is a 6-foot-4 freshman.

The Michigan State campus was the site of an historically significant game in Loyola history, according to a report on LoyolaRamblers.com.

At Jenison Field House on March 15, 1963, in an NCAA regional semifinal game, Loyola defeated Mississippi State 61-51 with a team that featured four African-American starters. Mississippi State’s roster was all white. Before an injunction that would have prevented the team from playing an integrated Loyola club could be served by Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, the Maroons (as the now-Bulldogs were then known) left their campus town at night and traveled to play the game. Loyola went on to win the NCAA tournament championship.